n May 17, longtime
Mote President
and CEO Dr.
Kumar Mahadevan
will step down,
leaving the Lab’s
day-to-day
operations to incoming President Dr.
Michael P. Crosby, who has served as
Mote’s Senior Vice President for Research
since 2010.
Dr. Mahadevan joined Mote as a senior
scientist in 1978 — “when not many
people in town even knew where Mote
was,” he jokes, though for the record, he
knew of the Lab when he was a student
back in his native India.
Indeed, Mote was a much smaller place
back then — there were just a handful of
young scientists and an operating budget
around $300,000.
When he assumed the role of President
and CEO 27 years later in 1986, the
Lab’s annual operating budget was about
$2 million, with 52 staff. Today, Mote’s
budget is around $18 million, there are
192 staff members, including 32
Ph.D.-level scientists undertaking more
than 250 research projects a year, and

the Lab’s estimated economic impact to
the community is in excess of $70
million.

Aquarium is one of the most-visited
attractions in the region with more than
350,000 visitors annually.

When Dr. Mahadevan took the helm, the
Lab made a strong commitment to public
outreach, opening a small science center
in 1980 and then the larger revamped
Mote Aquarium nearly a decade later. It
also started focusing on programs for
kids, including summer camps.

Sure not a bad track record for a man
who never wanted a leadership role. “I
wanted to do science,” he says. “I didn’t
know when I arrived in Florida from India
for graduate school that I would one day
work at Mote or even lead it. It really is
the American dream.”

“For people to understand our shark
research, they have to be able to see
sharks,” he says. “I think The Aquarium
and our education programs are key to
helping people understand that it’s
important to conserve our marine
environment, what the benefits of it are
and what could be lost.”

But don’t think that Mote is letting Dr.
Mahadevan off the hook that easily —
he’ll remain involved with the Lab under
his new title “President Emeritus” and
continue promoting and developing
support for Mote’s world-class research
and education programs. “One of the
things that I really like to do is be an
ambassador for the Lab — I’ll get to keep
doing that!”

Today, Mote educates some 25,000
school children annually and The

MOTE MAGAZINE | SPRI N G 2013

M3

MOTE MILESTONES
MOTE WELCOMES NEW
DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS
Mote Marine Laboratory is pleased to
announce its appointment of Susan May
as Director of Donor Data Management
and Amy Sankes as Major Gifts Officer —
two prominent development
professionals from the Sarasota-Manatee
nonprofit
community who
will help the
Lab’s marine
research and
education
efforts continue
to grow.
May and Sankes
Amy Sankes
will help raise
funding support
for the world-class marine research that is
priority No. 1 in Mote’s 2020 Vision and
Strategic Plan, which serves as the
blueprint guiding Mote’s innovative and
transformative efforts in local, national

and international marine and biomedical
research, education, outreach and policy
advice designed to meet the critical
needs facing our oceans and positively
impact society in this century and
beyond. (Read the Strategic Plan at mote.
org/aboutus.)

Susan May will manage the data systems

“Mote has accomplished great things
throughout its
57-year history as
an independent,
nonprofit lab,
thanks in large part
to dedicated
supporters in our
community,” said
Mote’s Chief
Susan May
Advancement
Officer, Tom
Waters. “Now we are honored to have
two highly respected development
experts in our area choose to join us in
building and managing these critical
relationships.”

Senior Director for Development for The

that support every aspect of Mote’s
development efforts, oversee its
membership activities and gather and
organize knowledge to help us better
serve donors, Members and Aquarium
visitors. Sankes previously served as
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
and Florida State University Foundation,
where she increased gift income by 400
percent over the past two years.

VISITORS GET A CHARGE
OUT OF MOTE
Mote visitors can now charge their electric
vehicles and learn how much solar
energy Mote is capturing thanks to new
equipment installed as part of Mote’s
Sustainable Energy Initiative.
The vehicle charging station is free to the
public thanks to Mote volunteer Nigel
Mould, an electric-vehicle owner who is
funding its operation for two years.
In 2012, Mote also mounted new solar
energy systems on two of our buildings,
thanks to generous donations by Willis A.
Smith Construction, Inc., and local solar
supporter Jim Lampl.
Now, visitors can learn how much energy
we are capturing from sunlight and how
this sustainable system is helping offset
emissions of carbon dioxide by looking at
a solar-power monitoring system installed
in The Aquarium
View our new solar monitor on the
second floor of The Aquarium’s Ann and
Alfred Goldstein Marine Mammal
Research and Rehabilitation Center, 1703
Ken Thompson Parkway (the same facility
with the large array of solar panels on the
roof).

—Learn more about Mote’s Sustainable
Energy Initiative and how you can help at
mote.org/energy.

ote opened a
new satellite
office on Boca
Grande as a
place where
residents and
visitors could

learn about Mote’s current and
proposed marine research programs in
Charlotte Harbor — everything from
tarpon and snook research to red tide
monitoring programs — as well as all the
research, education and outreach
programs that Mote undertakes from its
main campus in Sarasota.
The opening ceremony was attended by
hundreds of local residents and even a
special visitor — former First Lady Laura
Bush, who hailed the office as an
important resource for ocean
conservation during a ribbon-cutting
ceremony. “I understand, like all of you,
the pressures on the Gulf of Mexico,”

said Mrs. Bush, a Texas native and
part-time Boca Grande resident, who
has been an advocate for ocean
conservation since former President
George W. Bush designated the
first-ever National Marine Monuments,
creating 350,000 square miles of
protected underwater areas.
“The Gulf of Mexico is a dynamic
marine and coastal environment utilized
by tens of millions of people. Mote
Marine Laboratory’s new satellite office
here will be an important resource for
current and proposed research that will
help Charlotte Harbor remain one of the
state’s — and even the nation’s —
healthiest estuaries. Your efforts will
protect this beautiful part of the country
for our children, our grandchildren and
even our grandchildren’s grandchildren.”
Former U.S. Representative Andy
Ireland, an honorary Mote trustee and a
Boca Grande resident who is helping

spearhead Mote’s Boca efforts, also
introduced the office’s new Executive
Director, Capt. Philip O’Bannon, during
the ceremony. O’Bannon, the most
well-known fishing guide on the island,
is a sixth-generation Floridian who got
involved because he wanted to help
support the conservation of Charlotte
Harbor. “As the Executive Director of the
Mote office in Boca Grande, my goals
are to protect, preserve and enhance
our marine environment — especially
tarpon,” he said.
Stop by for a visit! The office is open
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day but
Sunday at 480 East Railroad Ave., Unit
7, Railroad Plaza, Boca Grande. Call
941-855-9251. (Note: Office hours may
vary during the off season. Please be
sure to call first. The mailing address for
the office is P.O. Box 870, Boca Grande,
Fla., 33921.)

or the first time, fishery
scientists, fish ecologists and
conservationists have come
together to assess the status
of and threats facing tarpon,
bonefish and ladyfish —
species that are
recreationally and economically
important to coastal regions like Boca
Grande and the Florida Keys.
The assessment also found that
recreational anglers could play a key role
in conserving these species.
Tarpon, bonefish and ladyfish live in
warm-water oceans worldwide and
mostly reside in near-shore areas, which
brings them into direct contact with

M6 MOTE MAGAZINE | SP RIN G 2013

humans. While these species are
exploited in many regions throughout
their range, in most cases little is known
about how their overall populations are
faring.
The new information should help
resource managers assess species
populations in their areas and help point
the way for future conservation
measures.
The assessment workshop was hosted
by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an
international organization that
establishes the conservation status of
species worldwide on the IUCN Red List
of Threatened Species™.

The results — being published in the
peer-review journal Fish and Fisheries by
lead author Dr. Aaron Adams, Mote
senior scientist and director of Bonefish
Tarpon Trust — show that of the 17
known species of tarpon, ladyfish and
bonefish:
n Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus),
which occurs in Florida, and
roundjaw bonefish (Albula
glossodonta), which occurs in the
Indo-West Pacific, are now
classified as Vulnerable;
n Bonefish (Albula vulpes), which
occurs in the Florida Keys and
Bahamas, is listed as Near
Threatened;

The economic value of the tarpon fishery in Charlotte Harbor
alone is estimated to exceed $110 million annually.

Understanding
Charlotte Harbor’s
Tarpon
Mote is proposing the first-ever,
large-scale acoustic tagging project
of adult tarpon. This groundbreaking
initiative — including partnership
with local fishing guides and anglers
— will determine the movements of
tarpon and help fill in gaps in our
knowledge of the species.
An array of 100 receivers will be
placed in multiple habitats in and
around Charlotte Harbor, including
the passes, along beaches, rivers
and within the estuary and will
record movements of each fish. The
information will be used to
understand tarpon habitat use and
how tarpon respond to changes in
fishing pressure and river flow. The
receivers will also tell us whether
tarpon return to Boca Grande Pass
after spawning offshore and
whether they return year after year.
n Three species are listed as Least
Concern;
n And, for 11 species, there aren’t
enough data available to make a
determination on the population
status.
In Florida, and many other areas within
their range, tarpon and bonefish support
recreational fisheries that bring millions
of dollars through ecotourism. For
instance, the economic value of the
tarpon fishery in Charlotte Harbor alone
is estimated to exceed $110 million
annually. In the Everglades, the species
is an even more important economic
draw as part of a fishery bringing in $991
million.

“In places that had the strongest
recreational ecotourism, the populations
of these species appear to be the most
stable,” says Adams. “That’s good news.
But the problem is that even in areas
like Charlotte Harbor and the Florida
Keys where we have some data, there
are still vital gaps in our knowledge
hampering our ability to conserve and
protect these species. We hope this new
assessment will help kick start research
and conservation efforts and bring these
species the attention they deserve.”

Our tagging approach will also tell
us how tarpon are responding to
stressors and allow us to track the
movement of tarpon beyond
Charlotte Harbor and into the Gulf
of Mexico and Southeastern U.S.
coast thanks to similar underwater
arrays in other locations.

—For information on how you can
support this proposed initiative,
please contact Mote Major Gifts
Officer Amy Sankes at 941-3884441, ext. 393.

—Partial funding for this work was
provided by the Moore Family
Foundation.
MOTE MAGAZINE | SPRI N G 2013

Conservation
WITH AN INTERNATIONAL FLAIR
MOTE IS HOSTING A NEW GROUP DEDICATED TO ADDRESSING CRITICAL NEEDS
FOR HABITAT RESTORATION AND SPECIES PROTECTION WORLDWIDE.

T

he numbers are appalling and unacceptable:
Of the 63,837 species worldwide that have
undergone population assessments, 19,817
— a startling one out of three — are
threatened with extinction. But in reality, those
figures don’t take into account the threats to
species that have never been studied; nor do

Now, a new coalition of aquariums, zoos and governmental
and non-governmental organizations hosted at Mote Marine
Laboratory and Aquarium will address some of these critical
needs for conservation of marine mammals, sea turtles,
seabirds and other species in locations worldwide that have
been underserved by science-based initiatives.

they address the threats to human populations that occur

The new International Consortium for Marine Conservation,

when species disappear.

with partners in the U.S. and abroad, will be led by Director

M8 MOTE MAGAZINE | SP RIN G 2013

Dr. John Reynolds, Senior Scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory and
immediate past Chairman of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission.
“Traditional thinking has been that if you do good science, conservation will
follow as a natural outcome,” said Reynolds, who chaired the Marine
Mammal Commission under four Presidential administrations between 1991
and 2010. “But in reality, the translation from science to conservation is far
from automatic. If the social and political will to make change isn’t there,
then the conservation measures that are needed will never be enacted.
Science is extremely valuable to inform conservation decisions, but
conservation takes much more than just the science to succeed.”
Instead of focusing only on science, the International Consortium for Marine
Conservation will also draw in groups with social, economic, cultural and
policy specialties to work proactively on solutions to environmental issues.

“MareCet is most proud and excited to be a part of this new
conservation coalition. As a new marine conservation
grassroots NGO, being in the ICMC will allow us to enhance
our mission of improving marine conservation within
Southeast Asia through the extensive networking and
technical support and know-how of international partners
within the Consortium.”
—Dr. Louisa Ponnampalam, MareCet’s Chairperson and Co-Founder

“This is really coalition-building for conservation,” Reynolds said. “We will
have a bottom-up approach by working with grassroots organizations. But
we will also have a top-down approach by working with decision makers,
including legislators. That way, we’re all working toward the same end and
will be able to accomplish projects that lead to protecting animals and their
habitats. In turn, that benefits humans, too.”
Members and Associate Members of the International Consortium include:
n Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium
n Alaska SeaLife Center
n BASE Entertainment
n Dolphin Quest (on behalf of Ocean Quest Conservation Foundation,
Malaysia)
n Eckerd College
n Georgia Aquarium
n KRE8 360
n The MareCet Research Organization, Malaysia
n Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), Tampa, FL
n Mystic Aquarium, a division of Sea Research Foundation
n National Aquarium in Baltimore
n North Slope Borough
n Saint Louis Zoo
n Southern Caribbean Cetacean Network

BIG BEL SAYS GOODBYE
A loggerhead sea turtle nicknamed “Big
Bel” that was treated in Mote’s Sea Turtle
Rehabilitation Hospital for several months
returned to the wild in February.
Big Bel was found stranded off of Fort
Myers Beach after Hurricane Isaac passed
through the area at the end of August, said
Bob Wasno, Public Outreach Coordinator at
Florida Gulf Coast University’s Vester
Marine and Environmental Science Field
Station. Tourists had spotted the struggling
sea turtle in the surf and called the local
sea turtle patrol, Turtle Time, for help.
“I grabbed one of my interns to help and
picked up a buddy and his wife on the
way,” Wasno said. Wasno, along with intern
Marine Fuhrmann and David and Tricia
Kessel helped carry the turtle to a truck so
it could be transported to the Vester field
station. After a few days, it was transferred
to CROW, a wildlife rehabilitation facility on
Sanibel. In November, Big Bel came to
Mote for additional care.
During its time in care, veterinary staff
removed an incredible 22 pounds of
epibiota growth on its carapace (living
things like algae and barnacles). The turtle,
a female, was believed to be suffering from
lethargic loggerhead syndrome and also
had old wounds.
With a crowd gathered on Lido Beach to
wish her well, the 214-pound turtle was
set down on the sand near the water —
she crawled right in and quickly
disappeared!
MOTE MAGAZINE | SPRI N G 2013

M9

OIL & CORAL LARVAE
DON’T MIX, STUDY SAYS

By Hayley Rutger

B

aby corals of at least some
species are vulnerable to
Deepwater Horizon oil and
are especially likely to die
when exposed to
dispersants used during a
spill, according to a

lab-based study by Mote scientists that
was published in the peer-reviewed
journal PLOS ONE earlier this year.
The study was the first controlled test of
how Deepwater Horizon oil and the
dispersant Corexit® 9500 affect coral
larvae — the drifting offspring of corals that
must settle and grow to maintain and
expand reefs.
While the study focused on two coral
species from the Florida Keys — an area
not directly impacted by the spill — the
The coral larvae in this study
were collected under the
government research permit
FKNMS-2010-080-A2 issued by
the Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary. Coral reefs
within the Sanctuary are
protected by federal law.

results highlight concerns about corals
nearer to the spill site and provide new
insights for mitigating oil spills near reefs.
The Deepwater Horizon rig spilled more
than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf
of Mexico, and responders used nearly 2
million gallons of dispersant — a chemical
that can break up oil slicks into small
droplets that diffuse in the water column.

reaching shore, but they may change and
even exacerbate the threats from oil toxins
in the underwater environment.
During the study, scientists tested larvae
from two coral species widespread in the
Florida Keys — mustard hill coral (Porites
astreoides) and mountainous star coral
(Montastraea faveolata) — in water
containing the dissolved components of
Deepwater Horizon oil from the source,
weathered oil, the dispersant Corexit®
9500 and the combined oil and
dispersant. They monitored the coral larvae
for 72 hours at different concentrations of
each solution and they also tested how
the mountainous star coral larvae fared in
solutions that were slowly diluted over 96
hours.
They found that larvae exposed to oil
components died sooner and settled less
than control larvae given only seawater.
Both species were also highly vulnerable
to Corexit® 9500. “Dispersant, and the
mixture of oil and dispersant, may be
highly toxic to coral larvae and prevent
them from building new parts of the reef,”
said Dr. Kim Ritchie, principal investigator
on the emergency Protect Our Reefs grant
supporting this study. “In addition, our
results support the growing knowledge

Set of Mote
Tervis tumblers
with purchase of a new
“Protect Our Reefs” plate.
Visit reefplate.com
for details.

that certain coral species may fare worse
than others during oil spills.”
Co-author Dr. Dana Wetzel, manager of
Mote’s Environmental Laboratory for
Forensics, noted that the study helps
broaden the scientific understanding of oil
spill effects. “While we have knowledge
about the toxicity of oil and dispersants on
fish and shellfish, there has been limited
information available so far on the lethal
effects of oil on coral larvae.”

READ MORE
This study was conducted by Dr. Kim
Ritchie, manager of Mote’s Marine
Microbiology Program, Dr. Dana Wetzel,
manager of Mote’s Environmental
Laboratory for Forensics, and Dr. Gretchen
Goodbody-Gringley, former Mote
postdoctoral researcher who is now an
instructor at Bermuda Institute of Ocean
Sciences.
See the complete paper online at
mote.org/larvae.
REEFPLATE.COM
Get the plate that supports them all.

Support coral reef restoration and conservation.

MOTE MAGAZINE | SPRI N G 2013

M11

GIVING GIRLS
THE KEYS
TO SCIENCE
EDUCATION
By Hayley Rutger
When the group of elementary students
from Girls Incorporated visited The
Aquarium at Mote Marine Laboratory in
February, they thought seeing the
135,000-gallon shark habitat was the
highlight of their trip — until the real
surprise swam into view.
“There was a man underwater holding up
signs,” said 9-year-old Shaniya Lane.
“One sign said ‘Girls Inc. is…’ and the
other said ‘going to the Keys!’”
The news was out: The girls would be
heading to the Florida Keys as part of an
ongoing Mote-Girls Inc. partnership
program for marine science education.
The joint program, launched in fall 2012,
allows Mote’s marine science educators
to present programs at the Girls Inc.

M12 MOTE MAGAZINE | S P RIN G 2013

headquarters and host participating girls
at Mote for field trips focused on ocean
animals, research and conservation. The
partnership program was made possible
through support from Mote Trustee Mary
Lou Johnson, and it is being supported
for a year or more through a generous
donation by the Guy Harvey Ocean
Foundation, which fully funded the girls’
trip to the Keys.
Women across the U.S. are gaining steam
in STEM — science, technology,
engineering and mathematics — but a
gender gap remains: Women filled fewer
than 25 percent of U.S. STEM jobs in
2009, even though they held nearly half
the nation’s total jobs, according to a
report from the U.S. Department of
Commerce.
“The collaboration between Mote and
Girls Incorporated of Sarasota County is
not only a win for the girls engaging in
the marine sciences, but it is also a win
for both agencies to combine our own
unique strengths for a program that will
encourage our girls to possibly work in
the marine sciences job market,” said
Susan Jones, Girls Inc. Board Chair. “We

are thrilled at the girls’ ability to learn and
explore the research being done right
here in Sarasota County at Mote.”
The Mote-Girls Inc. partnership program
started out with a six-week segment
about sea turtles — endangered and
threatened marine reptiles that nest on
local beaches where Mote scientists have
led sea turtle research and conservation
for more than three decades — and
would culminate this semester with the
trip to the Keys.
During the trips, the girls would visit a
mangrove island, try their hand at
catch-and-release fishing, meet sea turtles
at The Turtle Hospital in Marathon,
discover dolphins at the Dolphin
Research Center on Grassy Key and of
course, snorkel on coral reefs — a major
focus of Mote’s world-class research in
the Florida Keys.
“Miss Gina and Miss Kelly (of Mote) have
been teaching us about coral,” Shaniya
said. “I think coral is beautiful.”

WHERE IS
MOLLY
THE
MOLLUSK?
Molly, Mote Aquarium’s giant squid
specimen, is making her world premiere
as part of a brand-new “Sea Monsters
Revealed” exhibit at the Museum of
Science and Industry in Tampa. The
exhibit is the world’s largest show of
plastinated sea creatures.
You can visit the exhibit and see Molly
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through
Fridays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on
Saturdays and Sundays now through
Sept. 2, 2013.

MEET CALEB!
The Aquarium at Mote Marine Laboratory is excited to introduce our newest resident:
Caleb, a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle that now calls our Sea Turtles: Ancient Survivors
Exhibit home.
Caleb is the first Kemp’s ridley turtle to become a permanent resident at Mote. The
exhibit also houses loggerhead and green turtles that could not be released, has a
hospital for hatchling sea turtles and features educational displays about Mote’s sea
turtle conservation and research, highlighting how the public can help sea turtles
survive in the wild.

Sea Monsters Revealed tickets are
$18.95 for adults, $16.95 for seniors
(60+) and $12.95 for children (2-12).
Guests can add MOSI general exhibits or
a documentary IMAX film to their Sea
Monsters Revealed ticket for $5 each.
(Because of Mote’s reciprocal
relationship with MOSI, the $5 general
admission fee would be waived for Mote
Members during April and May.)
Reservations suggested:
Call (813) 987-6000 or visit mosi.org.

Caleb is a juvenile turtle with a shell just 14 inches long and weighing in at about 20
pounds. Wildlife officials determined that Caleb would not survive if he was returned
to the wild because of impaired swimming abilities.
When we heard the news that Caleb was looking for a permanent home, Mote was
happy to provide one. “Caleb doesn’t have that full range of movement he’d need to
survive in the wild — the ability to undergo long migrations and avoid boats or
predators,” said Holly West, Sea Turtle Care Coordinator. “We’re glad to provide him
a permanent home where we can work with him to improve his swimming abilities
and where he can help educate the public about this endangered species.”
As a sea turtle ambassador, Caleb will now be able to help Mote visitors of all ages
learn about Kemp’s ridleys — considered the most endangered sea turtle species on
Earth.

MOSI
4801 E. Fowler Avenue
Tampa, FL 33617

—Support the care of Caleb and other sea turtles in The Aquarium by adopting a
sea turtle at mote.org/adopt.

MOTE MAGAZINE | SPRI N G 2013

M13

ISSUES AND IMPACTS:

CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK ABOUT SHARK BITES
By Hayley Rutger

When we think about sharks, one of the first things that comes
to mind for many of us is the movie Jaws with its rogue great
white attacking humans in Amity Island, N.Y.
The movie was so popular it spawned a cottage industry of
shark attack movies and even Discovery Channel’s popular
“Shark Week.” The term “shark attack” is ubiquitous — used by
media, government officials, researchers and the public to
describe almost any kind of human-shark interaction, including
those where no contact or injury occurs between humans and
sharks.
But a new research paper by Christopher Neff of the University
of Sydney, Australia, and Dr. Robert Hueter, leader of Mote
Marine Laboratory’s Center for Shark Research, is proposing a
sea change in the way we think about human-shark interactions
and calling for a new system of classification that provides more
accurate scientific reporting and public discussion about shark
risk to swimmers and divers.
“Not all shark ‘attacks’ are created equal, and we certainly
shouldn’t call bites on kayaks and bites on people the same
thing,” says Neff, a doctoral candidate at the University of
Sydney.

M14 MOTE MAGAZINE | S P RIN G 2013

Sharks were labeled “man-eaters” two centuries ago by
scientists who had a limited understanding of shark behavior
and biology and a researcher in the 1950s wrongly suggested
sharks could go “rogue,” developing a taste for human flesh.
“But our contemporary scientific understanding of sharks paints
a very different picture than early research and even current
public discourse,” says Hueter, leader of the only
Congressionally designated national research center in the U.S.
focused on sharks. “Few sharks look like the large great whites
you might see on the movie screen; of about 500 shark species
on earth, most grow to less than 3 feet long. In addition, most
shark species rarely, if ever, come into contact with humans.
When they do, serious bites are the extremely rare exception
rather than the rule.”
In the study, Neff and Hueter analyzed shark statistics from
around the world and found the term “shark attack” misleading
in many cases. For instance, in Florida — often called the “Shark
Attack Capital of the World” because of the number of reported
shark attacks — only 11 fatal bites have been recorded over the
past 129 years. That’s a lower number than several other
locations in the world, and vastly lower than deaths from other
types of natural events such as drowning or lightning.

Researchers say use of term “shark zttack”
leads to misperceptions, inaccurate risk reporting.

“We shouldn’t equate the single bite of a 2-foot shark on a
surfer’s toe with the fatal bite of a 15-foot shark on a swimmer,
but that’s how the current language treats these incidents,”
Hueter says.

“These new categories provide better information to the public

Neff and Hueter propose grouping shark bites into four
categories based on outcomes that can be clearly documented,
rather than speculation over what the sharks’ motives and
intentions were. These include:

pieces of information. There simply is no value in using ‘attack’

•

SHARK SIGHTINGS: Sightings of sharks in the water in
proximity to people with no physical contact.

•

SHARK ENCOUNTERS: No bite takes place and no humans
are injured, but physical contact occurs with a person or an
inanimate object holding a person, such as a surfboard or
boat. A shark might also bump a swimmer and its rough
skin might cause a minor abrasion.

•

SHARK BITES: Bites by small or large sharks that result in
minor to moderate injuries.

•

FATAL SHARK BITES: One or more bites causing fatal
injuries. The authors caution against using the term “shark
attack” unless the motivation and intent of the shark are
clearly established by experts, which is rarely possible.

so they can judge their levels of risk based on local shark
activity,” Neff said. “If ‘sightings’ of sharks are increasing, or if
‘encounters’ with kayaks are decreasing these are important
language. It is time to move past Jaws.”

READ IT
“Science, policy, and the public discourse of shark ‘attack’: a
proposal for reclassifying human–shark interactions” can be
downloaded at mote.org/sharkbite.

MOTE MAGAZINE | SPRI N G 2013

M15

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Manasota, FL
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(941) 388-4441
www.mote.org

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r o m a n t i c

l e g a c y

PATRICE BOEKE AND TOM ALBURN both had long been
single until fate intervened in the form of Mote’s founding
director, Dr. Eugenie Clark.
Tom, who grew up near Philadelphia and attended college in
upstate New York, met Genie in 1989 and became one of
her most trusted assistants on annual dives off Curacao, the
Cayman Islands, in the Red Sea, Thailand, Indonesia, Florida,
Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Patrice was born in California and moved around the country
while growing up and getting a degree in marketing. And
marketing is what she did for a living before deciding that
she would marry if she could find “Mr. Right.” Neither
hobbies of horseback riding nor golf produced a fitting
partner, but scuba diving finally did — in a most unusual way.
Patrice and Genie both happened to be living in Bethesda,
Md., in 1997. Though they frequented the same beauty
salon, they had never met. One day, the salon’s owner
overheard Patrice talk about her new interest in diving and
passed along Genie’s number to Patrice, thinking she could
go on one of Genie’s trips. Genie invited Patrice to join an
upcoming expedition to the Sea of Cortez to study whale
sharks and more expeditions followed.

Genie learned more about Patrice and thought that she
could be a good match for Tom. Her first try at matchmaking
was so successful a romance blossomed and Tom proposed.
He wrote, “Will you marry me?” on a dive slate when both
were submerged 70 feet down in a rock quarry testing dry
suits. They were married in 2003 on the Nai’a, a live-aboard
dive boat in the Fijian Islands.
Their shared interest also led Patrice and Tom to became
Mote donors, designating the Lab as beneficiary in their IRAs
and becoming members of the Mote Legacy Society in the
process. There are other ways to join the Legacy Society,
some of which can give you a lifetime income and leave
Mote a handsome gift.
Talk to an expert: Your financial adviser or Ann Hayes,
Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving at 941-388-4441,
ext. 261, or plannedgiving@mote.org.

There are many ways you can add your solid financial backing to support Mote Marine
Laboratory and Aquarium. For a start, talk to Ann Hayes, Director of Major Gifts and
Planned Giving, at 941-388-4441, ext. 261, or e-mail plannedgiving@mote.org.

Mote Magazine, Spring 2013f

Learn about the status of tarpon and snook and what happens when oil and coral meet. Mote Magazine is published by Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, a nonprofit marine research organization dedicated to today's research for tomorrow's oceans. By telling the stories of sea science, Mote hopes to enhance public understanding of marine research and conservation.